Panel recommends flyovers

“Shovel readiness” makes the flyover bridges connecting U.S. 278 with the Bluffton Parkway eligible for a $15 million state grant. But some officials are reluctant to take the money and start digging.

The Beaufort Transportation Advisory Group (BTAG) endorsed the flyovers — and accepting the S.C. Department of Transportation’s money — on Thursday.

Beaufort County Council will make the final decision, but the money can’t be used for anything else. If the county doesn’t take it, the funds will go elsewhere.

The flyovers would ease traffic on U.S. 278 and provide an alternate hurricane evacuation route.

However, BTAG members still have issues with the two bridges over the marsh at Buckingham Landing near Moss Creek, where the parkway and highway would connect.

Hilton Head Island residents have complained about the aesthetics of what would become their “gateway.” The island’s Town Council voted narrowly to endorse the flyovers, with reservations.

Redesigning the project at this stage could jeopardize the state grant, some officials said.

“We’re not shovel ready if we go back and study what has been studied for more than half a decade,” said County Council Chairman Weston Newton.

“To the DOT, the project must be shovel ready.... This project meets that criteria,” said local DOT Commissioner Craig Forrest, a Sun City resident. “If you change the scope of the project, it is my opinion that this is not the project that the DOT approved.”

Hilton Head Mayor Drew Laughlin also said the flyover could make access to Windmill Harbour more difficult because it would eliminate the gaps in traffic that residents depend on to make a left turn onto U.S. 278.

Bluffton Mayor Lisa Sulka said the flyovers, and completion of Phase 5A of the parkway, will create another traffic bottleneck unless Phase 5B at the Buckwalter Parkway is completed.

“The flyover is going to be a disaster if it doesn’t go straight through to 170,” Sulka said.

But the parkway’s Phase 5B found itself at the bottom of the advisory panel’s food chain because, unlike the flyovers, it’s not shovel ready.

Phase 5B is designed to straighten the overlapping “jog” of the Bluffton and Buckwalter parkways. Its route was determined after a lengthy process of public hearings, environmental impact studies and safety-design engineering required to make the project eligible for federal transportation funds.

But the town of Bluffton and developer John Reed, who owns property along the Phase 5B right of way, requested an alternative route that has sent the project back to the drawing board.

Bluffton Town Council agreed last week to spend $90,000 to fund redesign work along part of the Phase 5B route.

David Beaty, project manager with Florence & Hutcheson of Columbia, the county’s consulting civil engineers, said it could be a year before Phase 5B is ready for construction.

The county received a $25 million grant from the State Infrastructure Bank to complete the S.C. 170 widening project from U.S. 278 to S.C. 46.

That leaves the flyovers and Bluffton Parkway Phase 5B as the major projects left unfunded by a one-cent sales tax approved by voters in a 2006 referendum.

If the county accepts the grant for the flyovers, it must match the state’s $15 million. The flyover project is estimated to cost about $31 million.

That would leave an “uncommitted balance” of about $5 million in the road project fund, according to county Chief Financial Officer David Starkey.

The estimated cost of Bluffton Parkway Phase 5B is about $24 million, leaving a $19 million funding deficiency, Starkey said.

“The Bluffton Parkway continues to sit and at some time I would like to bump it up,” Sulka said. “5B just keeps getting pushed back and pushed back and pushed back....”

More state grant money will be available in 2017, according to Newton.

“There’s a strategy for completing 5B... if we know what 5B is,” Newton said.